The importance of forests for humanity
People take a lot from the forest: materials for construction, food, medicine, raw materials for the paper industry. Wood, pine needles and wood bark serve as raw materials for many branches of the chemical industry. About half of the wood produced is supplied for fuel, and the third for construction. A quarter of all drugs used are obtained from tropical forest plants.
Despite the fact that forests are a renewable resource, the speed of their cutting is too high and not covered by the speed of reproduction. Millions of hectares of deciduous and coniferous forests are destroyed annually. Tropical forests, in which more than 50% of the Earth's species live, were previously covered by 14% of the planet, and now only 6%. The forests of India fell in area from 22 to 10% over the past half century. Coniferous forests of the central regions of Russia, forests in the Far East and Siberia are destroyed, and swamps appear on the site of cutting. Cut valuable pine and cedar forests.
Measures to eliminate damage caused by deforestation;
- Increase the territory of new forest planting
- Expand existing ones and create new protected areas, forest reserves.
- Implement effective measures to prevent forest fires.
- Carry out measures, including preventive measures, to combat diseases and pests.
- Carry out selection of tree species that are resistant to environmental stresses.
- Protect forests from the activities of enterprises involved in the extraction of minerals.
- To fight against poachers.
- Use effective and least harmful methods of felling.
- Minimize wood waste, develop ways to use them. Introduce ways of secondary wood processing.
- Encourage ecological tourism.